Colorado Right to Life is blasting former representative and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer (R) “over his defense of human rights conditions in the Northern Mariana islands, an American territory where allegations that factory workers must undergo forced abortions are common”:
“The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children,” said Steve Curtis, spokesman for the group and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “At best Schaffer was negligent investigating coerced abortion in the Mariana Islands,” he said. “Worse, he has voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, rewarding the regime that forces women to abort their children.”
In his defense, Shaffer told the Denver Post, “In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them.” Schaffer has come under fire for boosting the Marianas after taking a a 1999 visit there funded by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.